Picnic by Norisada Maeda Atelier

Tokyo-based architects Norisada Maeda Atelier have completed a house comprising three long strips in Tsukuba Ibaraki, Japan.

Called Picnic, the residence is divided into three parallel strips, separated by gardens.

The building comprises a steel structure with metal interior and exterior finishes, resting on a concrete base.

Glass curtain walls are used to continually relate interior and exterior spaces, and afford views to the Tsukuba mountain beyond.

More about Norisada Maeda on Dezeen:

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Here’s some information from the architect:

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The architecture of Picnic consists of 3 roof surfaced areas, that respond to each other in a parallel correlation to create a striped pattern .

By doing so, the architecture results in constructive parts with roofs, that build an inside, the room itself. Those parts without roofing create an outside, the garden.

As seen in the right picture, from left to right, the zebra-like structure breaks up into the following stripes: garden – room – garden – room – garden – room – garden. Both functional units are alternately parallel arranged to become one composition.

Within the Picnic structure of the aforementioned roofed and unroofed parts, some of those are discontinued in order to establish a deeper appearance in between the relationship of the inside and outside.

In this relation, the third garden from the left shapes a pool. In order to make the architecture coincide with the landscape scenery, transparency is applied to the outer walls.

To achieve the maximum impression of blending inside and outside into each other, clear glass is being used for most of the room forming parts.

Additionally those surrounding walls are partly consisting of shiny stainless steel, to reflect the outside as well as the inside, depending on your location in the architecture structure.

With taking advantage of this effect, the building itself functions as a mirror and makes you experience an atmosphere in which every place seems to be inside and outside likewise.

By sitting on this site and indulging in the view on Tsukuba mountain, Picnic becomes a place, where you would want to have your picnic every day – inside or outside.